Buffalo City Grille

This letter is unlike any of Jim’s previous letters. He spent hours thinking about what he wanted to say, crafting the story long before putting paper in the typewriter. It’s infrequent to see a sentence fragment. Today’s letter is full of fragments. Most importantly, it’s full of thought fragments, any one of which could make a whole story. As I read through the letter it reminded me of so many fun activities and events. My mind immediately went to the photo albums which have pictures for almost every sentence fragment below. One of the first memories he recalls is of the analyst magazine that Mike B and I published for several months. There’s already a lengthy story about that one available.

Cal’s Office Supply Delivery van

The first phrase that really triggers the memories is about Cal’s Office Supply. There were two office supply stores in town, and one of them didn’t get my business. (There was a story about those pennies a couple of months ago.) I met Jim at Cal’s when I was looking for paper for the analyst. Jim was usually on the road for Cal, delivering and picking up office machines from all over the area. The typewriters, adding and accounting machines fascinated me! Better than that, he got to drive a Ford Econoline van. What a piece of work that was.

On a side note, the Buffalo City Grille now occupies the space where Cal’s was in the late sixties. It’s our favorite restaurant in Jamestown.

Gene at Jim’s apartment

Gene Kurtz ran the repair shop. He could fix any of those mechanical monstrosities. He loved fun, drinking, fast cars, and practical jokes. He could tell you more stories than either Jim or I could, including ones about bullheads and his 1958 Ford Thunderbird. His obituary on the web even mentions both Cal’s Office Supply and practical jokes. One of his most irritating practical jokes involved snapshots. In the sixties it took at least a week, sometimes months to use up a roll of film and have it processed at the local drug store (White’s) or photography studio (King’s). By the time you got the pictures, you realized that in just about every picture of Gene he had managed to sneak in a quick finger.

Guy with the 1952 Cadillac in 1965. Probably at Lake Metigoshe.

Jim loved to camp. In style. No tents for him, he wanted a camper. He was an Airstream fan, but without the cash to buy a real one. He had a tiny, two-wheeled outfit that barely fit two people with gear. The back side had a hatchback that opened into a galley that would have been big on a boat or airplane. Given his history of Navy and Air Force, that was appropriate. We had a lot of fun in that little camper, even if it did rain just about every weekend we were out. It towed nicely behind his 1952 Cadillac coupé.

The second half of the letter describes his experience with the Air Force Reserve.

Jim writes:

Incidents 1962-1965

Between the above dates occurred events that I will always remember: Leaving Sears employment … a do nothing summer off … the Air Force Reserve … joining the staff of Cal’s office Supply as a salesman … my friendship with Gene Kurtz and Cal’s repairman … and in the latter days of 1963 meeting Guy William Havelick, founder and co-editor of the “Analyst” … a prestigious publication of scientific and intellectual depth! Purchasing the black 1952 Cadillac coupe DeVille from Lake Motors in Devils Lake … (traded in 1960 Opel Rekord 2 door sedan) … friendship with Guy was growing … during the year of 1964 we shared many activities … Guy was learning to drive and many Saturday and Sundays were spent driving to Valley City, Binford, Kathryn, Spiritwood, and the surrounding areas … Sundays … making breakfast for us at 406 1st Ave north then Guy off to church … evenings listening to “Herman’s Hermits” and eating popcorn!

This was also the year that we made many camping trips in the little, leaky, two wheel trailer … the winter we cut, measured the custom built canopy for the trailer and used once at Lake Meticoshe during one of the frequent rain squalls we endured … “the clouds were always breaking up” or so we hoped! Continue reading →